FCC orders wireless microphones to vacate U.S. airwaves

REGULATORS

Wireless mike users told to switch signals

Theaters, churches and other users of wireless microphones were given five months to vacate U.S. airwaves that regulators say are needed for high-speed Web services.

The Federal Communications Commission in a statement Friday set a June 12 deadline for wireless microphone users to switch to different signals. AT&T and Verizon Wireless, the two largest U.S. mobile-phone companies, won a 2008 auction for rights to the airwaves, which had been occupied by broadcast television and unlicensed microphone transmissions.

The order will primarily affect wireless microphone systems that operate in the 700 megahertz frequency. TV broadcasters left those airwaves in a transition to digital service that ended last June. In some cities, public safety agencies have begun using the frequencies.

There are still "significant unauthorized operation of wireless microphones" in the auctioned airwaves, according to the FCC. The order requires wireless microphone users to tune their equipment to signals not auctioned in 2008, or buy new equipment that doesn't use the auctioned frequencies.

-- Bloomberg News

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